You can safely skip the Academy Awards telecast on this coming Sunday, March 12. While The Good Nurse, Blonde, Empire of Light, Women Talking, The Inspection, and Elvis are overlooked, and as the way over-touted but lacking movies Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, Tár, and The Fabelmans have gained the brunt this year’s Oscar nominations, I can safely say that 2022 was among the worst years in my 48 years of being a movie fan.

If too many of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies also leave you cold, here is a roster of films in no particular order that I think have merit, and will take your mind off the dismal state of film making.

• Zero Dark Thirty, www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885
  
• The Hurt Locker, www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912
  
• The Third Miracle, www.imdb.com/title/tt0174268
  
• Enemy at the Gates, www.imdb.com/title/tt0215750
  
• Shakespeare in Love, www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097

• Gallipoli, www.imdb.com/title/tt0082432
  
• Breaker Morant, www.imdb.com/title/tt0080310
  
• The Man Who Would Be King, www.imdb.com/title/tt0073341
  
• The Painted Veil, www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755
  
• Argo, www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648

• The King’s Speech, www.imdb.com/title/tt1504320
  
• Body Heat, www.imdb.com/title/tt0082089
  
• Three Men and a Baby, www.imdb.com/title/tt0094137
  
• As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, www.imdb.com/title/tt0277327
  
• Any Which Way You Can, www.imdb.com/title/tt0080377

• Crimes and Misdemeanors, www.imdb.com/title/tt0097123
  
• The Village, www.imdb.com/title/tt0368447
  
• Hereafter, www.imdb.com/title/tt1212419
  
• Somewhere in Time, www.imdb.com/title/tt0081534
  
• Shadowlands, www.imdb.com/title/tt0108101

• The Player, www.imdb.com/title/tt0105151
  
• No Country for Old Men, www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348
  
• Mean Girls, www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092
  
• The Rookie, www.imdb.com/title/tt0265662
  
• Bull Durham, www.imdb.com/title/tt0094812

• Lost in Translation, www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266
  
• Garden State, www.imdb.com/title/tt0333766v
  
• The Contender, www.imdb.com/title/tt0208874
  
• The Way Back, www.imdb.com/title/tt1023114
  
• Defiance, www.imdb.com/title/tt1034303

• A Very Long Engagement, www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510
  
• The Usual Suspects, www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814
  
• Duplicity, www.imdb.com/title/tt1135487
  
• Vanilla Sky, www.imdb.com/title/tt0259711
  
• Millennium, www.imdb.com/title/tt0097883